On 9 November 2025, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum launched the Michoac\u00e1n Plan for Peace and Justice, deploying 12,500 military personnel and allocating 57 billion pesos (approximately CHF 2.5 billion). Its objective was to restore security in a state severely affected by organized crime-related violence. Yet the plan failed to include any specific protection measures for human rights defenders, Indigenous communities, and journalists, even though they are among those most exposed to such violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the moment the Plan was announced, the Supreme Indigenous Council of Michoac\u00e1n denounced<\/a> it as a \u201cdiscriminatory, unilateral, and misleading\u201d initiative developed without consultation with Indigenous peoples. Six months after its launch, an analysis<\/a> based on official data showed an increase in crime in more than half of Michoac\u00e1n\u2019s municipalities. On 5 May 2026, renewed clashes between criminal groups in Apatzing\u00e1n forced 668 people to flee their homes<\/a>. According to Julio Franco of the Apatzing\u00e1n Human Security Observatory, \u201cthe increased deployment of security forces only consolidates militarization, without strengthening the authority of the Mexican state or the rule of law in these territories.\u201d The Pur\u00e9pecha communities of Acachu\u00e9n reached a similar conclusion, describing the Plan as a \u201ccomplete failure<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this context, Espacio OSC\u2014a national platform bringing together organizations defending human rights and press freedom, and accompanied by PBI Mexico for more than ten years\u2014called for the Plan to recognize human rights defenders and journalists as groups with specific protection needs. This demand is particularly significant in Michoac\u00e1n, which currently has 158 beneficiaries of the Federal Protection Mechanism, making it the third most affected state in the country. Yet the Plan makes no mention of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the ground, PBI accompanies the Michoac\u00e1n Human Rights Solidarity Network (Red Solidaria de Derechos Humanos de Michoac\u00e1n<\/a>), of which Pur\u00e9pecha defender Claudia Ignacio \u00c1lvarez is a member. In December 2025, as part of a PBI advocacy tour, she traveled to the United Kingdom to meet British parliamentarians and the Minister for Human Rights. Speaking about the risks faced by Indigenous defenders, she stated<\/a>: \u201cPur\u00e9pecha women are beaten when they speak out. The police arrive in riot gear to intimidate me, to prevent me from speaking or taking action. We are followed everywhere. Heavily armed police officers are stationed outside our homes and keep us under surveillance. The police have even threatened to kill me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experience of Michoac\u00e1n illustrates the limitations of approaches that rely primarily on military deployment to restore peace. For human rights defenders, journalists, and Indigenous communities, security also depends on the protection of rights, access to justice, and the preservation of an open civic space. In this context, PBI\u2019s work is more relevant than ever: supporting civil society actors by strengthening their visibility and solidarity networks, enabling them to continue their work despite the risks posed by increasing militarization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 9 November 2025, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum launched the Michoac\u00e1n Plan for Peace and Justice, deploying 12,500 military personnel and allocating 57 billion pesos (approximately CHF 2.5 billion). Its objective was to restore security in a state severely affected by organized crime-related violence. Yet the plan failed to include any specific protection measures for … Michoac\u00e1n \u2014 The Limits of a Militarized Peace<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"issue":[511],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"\u00e0 propos","author_link":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/author\/apropos\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/PBI193-600x332.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Reports<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Reports<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 months ago","modified":"Updated 2 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 2, 2026","modified":"Updated on July 2, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 2, 2026 7:56 am","modified":"Updated on July 2, 2026 8:25 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7517"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7922,"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517\/revisions\/7922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7517"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koff.swisspeace.ch\/apropos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=7517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}